Gandalf the Grey (and Blue)

When I was about ten or twelve years old, I took my first miniature painting class. It was held in a small room in the back of the local gaming store. As I remember, the only students were me, my friend Peter, and one other guy. The teacher, whose name I have long forgotten, was a kindly middle-aged fellow, who taught me a lot of important lessons about painting miniatures (most importantly, use acrylics, not oil-based paints!).

The teacher mostly painted Middle-Earth figures from Mithril Miniatures. I asked him once if he had a complete collection. He said that he had bought every figure that they had produced, but might give up if they produced another Gandalf figure.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there are more unique Gandalf figures (both official and unofficial) than there are for any other character. Not only is he arguably the most recognizable and popular figure in fantastic fiction, he is the only character to play a major role in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (as well as some of the supporting material).

All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I already have several Gandalfs in my collection, and I have just painted another one! This latest one is a plastic miniature that comes from the Mines of Moria box set. Unlike most of the other Gandalfs in the Games Workshop line, this one was not based on the movie version...or at least it isn't based on Ian McKellen. Still it is a wonderful sculpt and a really nice pose, and I thoroughly enjoyed painting it.

Since I already have several Gandalf the Greys in my collection, I decided to paint this one slightly differently. This time I gave him blue trim around his robes, which I think works pretty well, and matches the blue hat he is said to have in The Hobbit. I also made his scarf blue as well (said to be silver in the book). Even Gandalf must have gone through a few robes in his 3,000 years or so of wandering Middle-Earth!

Money is Time

As an American kid growing up in the 1980's, I heard the expression ‘Time is Money’ a lot. It was the catch phrase, or perhaps label, of a certain class of professional, career driven, movers and shakers that for many people defined the USA at the time. It was not, however, an outlook that I ever subscribed to. For most of my life, I haven’t been that concerned with making money. Sure, having money was better than the alternative, but at the highest levels, I just wasn’t that interested in most of the things that I thought money could buy.

Over the last year though, my whole vision of personal wealth and finance has turned dramatically. I realized something that any beginning student of logic or mathematics should have been able to point out. If Time = Money, then the opposite must also be true, Money = Time.

I am forty years old, but I don’t think I have ever heard anyone say ‘Money is Time’, despite the fact that we all understand this to be true. We all know that if we had enough money, we could quit our day jobs and do whatever we wanted to do. We all know that if you manage to save enough money over your working life, you should have enough money to retire. In both cases, you are using your money to essentially ‘buy’ time. How much is your time worth? How much would you rather have more time than most of the things you actually spend money on?

I'll leave this with you for the moment, dear reader.

* * *

This week, I have made a small, but I hope important change in my life. Looking over my finances, and factoring in the money I have made as a writer over the last couple of years (mostly from Frostgrave), I have decided to go down to 4 days a week at my job. I am going to use this extra time both to spend more time with my family (and help out my wife with our two young children) and to devote a specific bit of time every week to writing. It is my hope that freelance writing will be able to slowly replace my other work and reach a point where it can support me and my family nearly completely. 

It is a small step, but I hope it is just the first on a long journey. We shall see.

Doctor Who Audio Sale

As I mentioned awhile back, I have to clear more space in the house to make room for the new addition to the family. As part of this, I’m selling off my collection of Doctor Who Audio CDs. I’ve kept a few favourites, but most I am unlikely to listen to again. Before I put them up on ebay, I thought I would offer them to my blog readers. Each title is £4, plus whatever the shipping cost to wherever you are. Just drop me a line and let me know what you’d like, and I’ll arrange payment.

Some of the CD cases are cracked or broken, but all of the CDs and liner notes are in good condition.

If you’ve never tried any of the Audio Adventures before, I suggest getting one of the first few. Especially good might be #16 as this was Paul McGann’s first return to the role of the Doctor!

4 – The Land of the Dead

10 – Winter for the Adept

11 – Apocalypse Element

15 – The Mutant Phase

16 – Storm Warning (Sold)

18 – The Stones of Venice (Sold)

21 – Dust Breeding

22 – Bloodtide

23 – Project: Twilight

24 – The Eye of the Scorpion

25 – Colditz

26 - Primeval

27 – The One Doctor

30 – Seasons of Fear (Sold)

31 – Embrace the Darkness (Sold)

32 – Time of the Daleks (Sold)

33 - Neverland (Sold)

28 – Invaders from Mars (Sold)

38 – The Church and the Crown

41 – Nekromanteia
42 - The Dark Flame

44 – Creatures of Beauty

47 – Omega

48 - Davros

58 – The Harvest

65 – The Juggernauts

68 – Catch 1782

71 – The Council of Nicaea

73 – Thicker Than Water

81 – The King Maker
84 - The Nowhere Place
93 - Renaissance of the Daleks

115 – Forty-Five

124 – Patient Zero

133 – City of Spires

188 – Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories

The Light at the End

Living Legend

The Ratings War

Last of the Titans

Her Final Flight

First Look - Frostgrave: Forgotten Pacts

With the Forgotten Pacts Pre-Order Campaign just underway (and a free werewolf already reached!), I thought it might be a good time to talk about what is actually in the book!

It is always interesting to receive my author advance of a book, as by the time it comes out, I am generally deep into another project and have forgotten what was in it. (No, I haven't forgotten my own rules, mostly, just which book they are actually in!).

The book is divided into seven chapters of completely unequal length. The first chapter is 'Forging Pacts' and gives wizards all the information they need to know about reaching out to extra-planar entities and making deals for extra power. Of course, for each boon granted by some greater demon, sacrifices must be made...

The second chapter is called 'Advanced Summoning'. This includes expanded rules for summoning demons Out of Game. The main feature of this chapter is two tables for determining random 'demonic attributes' to bring variety to the demons of Frostgrave. Let's face it, demons under the main rules are a bit samey...we'll, not anymore.

The next two chapters are 'New Magic', which introduces rules for Mystic Brands, and 'New Soldiers' which presents four new soldier types that wizards can hire. For a preview of these four, check out the link to the pre-order campaign above.

After that comes the 'Scenarios' chapter. There are eight scenarios this time, including 2 mini-campaigns with 3 scenarios each. All of the scenarios in the book involve either demons or barbarians or both. Also, I would say that these scenarios are a bit tougher, a bit more dangerous, than most of those that have gone before. Well, most wizards should be rather up there in level by now, right?

The book rounds out with 'New Treasure' and a 'Bestiary', which mostly includes demons and a few unique barbarians.

Just to set one rumour to rest - there are no rules for mounted soldiers. There are special rules for the mounted guy on the cover, but he's a special kind of crazy for riding a rhino into The Frozen City.

So, hopefully there is something fun for everyone there. Yes, Summoners are a big winner here, but there's a lot of fun for Sigilists too. And anyone can Forge a Pact!

Frostgrave: Arcane Locations

The newest Frostgrave ebook, mini-supplement, Arcane Locations is out today. This is the last of the ebooks before they are collected into The Frostgrave Folio next year.

Arcane Locations includes three, unconnected scenarios, all set in specific famous locations in The Frozen City. The goal was to take advantage of the 'anything goes' setting of a ruined magical city to create some really different miniature gaming set-ups. I do warn that one of the scenarios requires making a very specific piece of terrain...

Also included are some new options for wizards to add to their bases. I mean what kind of wizard base is complete without a magic scroll case?

So, it's available today for the low price of £2.99 / $3.99 from

RPGNow

Osprey Publishing

Amazon

Quill

As far as writing goes, I'm not usually an envious guy. I'm proud of my own successes and happy for the success of others; but every so often something comes along that is so creative that I really wish that I had created it. (For example, I really wish I had written the story of Monsters Inc.!)

Recently, I had that experience with a little game called Quill: A Letter-Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player. In all my decades of gaming, I've never encountered anything quite like it. It's part game/part creative writing exercise. Essentially, the player creates a character who has three skills: penmanship, language, and heart. Then, the player picks a 'scenario'. Each scenario challenges the player to write a letter. It gives the specifics of the recipient and what the player hopes to gain by writing. Each scenario also includes a list of words that the player gains points by including in the letter, there are both common words and more poetic words. Whenever a player wants to use one of the words, he must roll to see if he uses the more common or more poetic word. The skills give him bonuses to certain rolls. And that's about it really. At the end of the letter, the player counts up how many points he has scored and checks the chart to see what kind of reception his letter received.

It is wonderfully simple, and yet endlessly creative. 

I am very tempted to ask the creator if I can write a few Quill: Frostgrave scenarios. How much fun would it be to have your wizard writing to some far off mage asking for help or advice on a potion or particularly tricky summoning? There are just so many possibilities.

Wonderfully, the PDF for the game is available on RPGNow selling as 'Pay What You Want'. I paid $2, but frankly it is worth more than that. I might just have to go back and pick up the expansion Quill: Coal and Parchment, which apparently takes your letter writing underground! (Letter writing form the Breeding Pits anyone?)

Highly Recommended.

The Frostgrave Folio

Although Forgotten Pacts is next up for Frostgrave, I thought people might enjoy a look at the cover for the first supplement for 2017! The Frostgrave Folio collects all of the previously released ebook mini-supplements along with a new mini campaign and presents them in print for the first time!